The Problem of the Day

Volume X - Sufi Mysticism

THE PROBLEM OF THE DAY

Brotherhood (1)

One can see the beginning of the spirit of brotherhood
when one looks at flocks of birds flying together in the
sky, or at the herds of animals in the fields and the swarms
of insects all living and moving together. No doubt this
tendency of brotherhood is more pronounced in man, for man
is not only capable of realizing the spirit of brotherhood,
but also of fulfilling the purpose which is hidden in this
natural tendency. There is one secret behind all this diversity
which we call good or bad, right or wrong, sin or virtue.
The secret is that all that leads to happiness is: right,
good, and virtuous. And all that leads to unhappiness is:
wrong, bad, and evil. If there is any sin, it is the latter
which may be called sin. Brotherhood is not something which
man has learned or acquired; it is something that is born
in him, and according to his development of this spirit
he shows the unfoldment of his soul.

Coming to the religions that have been given to the world,
we read for instance in the Bible the words of Jesus Christ,
admonishing us from beginning to end to love our fellow
man, our neighbor. It was the moral of brotherhood that
the Master taught and repeated constantly. If one studies
what is the central theme of all the different religions
which exist in the world, with their millions and millions
of followers, we will find that it is brotherhood: to love
one another, to serve one another, to be sincere to one
another.

But while man is capable of loving his friend, he is
still more capable of hating his neighbor. The first tendency,
that of brotherhood, of love, brings satisfaction to him
and happiness to the other. The other tendency of hating
his brother brings dissatisfaction to him, and unhappiness
to the other. Brotherhood creates happiness, and the spirit
that is contrary to it produces sorrow.

When we read the scriptures of the great world religions,
whether the Bible, Kabbala, the Quran, the
Gita, or the Buddhist scriptures, we find that in
some form or another, in the manner best suited to the people
to whom the religion was given, it was the same moral, the
same symphony, the same music which was performed before
them. Were the great teachers specially engaged in giving
mystical or occult teachings to the world? Were they engaged
in discussing philosophical problems? Not at all, although
they were mystics and knew philosophy and occultism, that
was not the principal thing that they had to give. What
they gave to the world was that simple philosophy which
is never new to anyone and which even a child knows: to
love one another, to be kind, to be sincere, to serve one
another.

But if such a simple thing, so simple that even a child
knows it, why was it necessary for the great ones, the godly
souls, to come and teach it? Life is most simple and yet
it is most difficult to live, and man will not accept any
teaching from someone who does not live it, or if he accepts
it, he will not hold on to it for long. Therefore they came
on earth with love from above, and they lived that simple
moral, that simple philosophy of brotherhood. A Mogul emperor,
Ghasnavi, who was also a great poet, wrote, 'Born in a palace,
and having reigned from the first day that I came to earth,
I saw nothing but thousands and thousands of people bowing
before me. But on that day in my life, when I learned my
first lesson of love, my proud head bowed as a servant before
every slave that I saw standing before me. Then I felt that
I was their slave,' What does this show? It shows that coldness
of heart hardens one's feelings and closes one's eyes to
that light which illuminates the path of brotherhood.

There are many relationships, there are many connections
in this world, by blood and also by law, but the greatest
relationship is friendship; and it is the culmination of
friendship that is called brotherhood. Brotherhood means
perfect friendship.

But now comes the question: how may this principle of
brotherhood be lived, how may it be practiced? It is very
difficult to teach this principle to anyone. The best way
of teaching it is my living it oneself. The parents, either
father or mother, who show their children that feeling of
brotherhood, can best express themselves to their children
in this way, and the children too are able to express themselves
best to their parents through this feeling. A father may
be most kind, a mother most loving. But as long as he or
she maintains the attitude of considering himself or herself
only as father or mother, as beings which are different
from the child, it will perhaps grow to love them but it
will never look upon them as friends. The child will look
for friends elsewhere. And a teacher may be respected by
his pupils, he may bear himself with great dignity before
his pupils, but at the same time there cannot be established
that communication of inspiration, of love, of sympathy,
of understanding until he has practiced the manner of brotherhood
with his pupils.

In what way did the great ones, the prophets, the seers,
the mystics, treat their pupils, their disciples? The story
is known to all of Jesus Christ calling the fisherman to
come and sit and talk with him. The Master never felt comfortable
when they called him good. He said, 'Call me not good.'
What he meant was, 'Do not consider me superior to you,
I am one of you.' Think then of the master washing the feet
of his disciples; what does it teach us? It teaches us brotherhood.
No miracle, no great power, no great inspiration, occult
or mystical, can equal the phenomenon of that humility,
of that fraternity, of that brotherhood with which the great
ones have become one with all men.

The world appears to be going from bad to worse; it seems
that the suffering that has been caused to humanity has
not yet ended. No doubt life in the world is so intoxicating
that man hardly stops to think about life. Life, such as
it is now, has so many responsibilities; everyone, whether
rich or poor, is so absorbed in his affairs that he hardly
has a moment to think of what is going on in the world.
Nevertheless illness is illness, and the world is ill. A
person may neglect his illness and engage his mind in something
else, but if that illness is not attended to, it remains
just the same. When we look for the cause of all these disasters
we may be able to find a thousand causes, yet there is one
principle cause and that is the lack of brotherhood.

One could have endured the absence of anything else;
but the world can never be happy, nor can order or peace
ever be maintained, in the absence of brotherhood. This
brotherhood can be learned, and every person has facilities
for learning it in his life. The master who is kind and
loving to his servant, who considers his servant as his
brother, is blessed. A family in which all the members,
whatever their relationship, realize the idea of brotherhood
in sharing pain and pleasure with one another, how happy,
how blessed that family will be! How blessed would be a
nation, in which, whatever its government, whatever its
constitution, there were this spirit of brotherhood between
people of different position, of different rank or occupation!
From whence does injustice come, from whence unfairness?
It all comes from the lack of brotherhood. Think of the
conditions today, the courts full of cases, the prisons
full of prisoners! How many disagreements there are between
people and inharmony between nations, all caused by the
lack of brotherhood.

When we consider this question from a still deeper point
of view, we shall find that in the spirit of brotherhood
is hidden a way to illumination. A man who may live by great
principles, or who prays all day or meditates in the caves
of the mountainside, if he does not show the spirit of brotherhood,
is no good to himself or to others, because brotherhood
is the way to develop spirituality. It is not exclusiveness,
it is not running away from the world which is the way of
the really spiritual ones. Their way is to consider one's
obligations, to keep one's word, one's honor, and to prove
sincere in whatever minor capacity one may be working, faithful
to friends and true to everyone. These are the merits, which
develop by themselves when the spirit of brotherhood has
matured in man.

But when we come to the metaphysical point of view we
see that an element attracts its own element. For instance,
two streams of water will be attracted to one another. But
although there will come a time when they join together,
efforts will have to be made by both. When fires start at
two sides of a certain place, each fire will be attracted
to the other and in the end they will meet and become one.
In the same way, an artist is attracted to an artist, a
thinker to a thinker, a scientist to a scientist, and the
man of action to the man of action. They are not only attracted
because there is the same element in both of them, but because
there is a comfort, a happiness in being attracted by the
same element. Think of the joy when two people of the same
thought meet together. It is greater than a joy, greater
than a satisfaction, it is that happiness which is promised
in heaven.

But behind all this world of various names and forms
there is one life, there is one spirit. This spirit which
is the soul of all beings is attracted towards unity, and
it is the absence of this spirit which keeps the world unhappy.
To a person who has just had some unpleasantness with his
brother or sister, his food is tasteless, the night without
sleep, the heart restless, the soul under a cloud. This
shows that we do not necessarily live on food; our soul
lives on love, the love that we receive and the love that
we give. The absence of this is our unhappiness, and the
presence of it is all we need. Nothing in the world is a
greater healing power, a greater remedy, a greater happiness,
than to be conscious of brotherhood and to be able to give
that feeling to one's child, master, neighbor, and friend.

The humble efforts made by the Sufi movement in the service
of God and humanity are towards brotherhood. In the form
of devotion, of philosophy, of mysticism, of metaphysics,
art, or science, in whatever form the Sufi movement presents
the ideal to the world, the central theme is always brotherhood.